Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics 8x42 Promaster Elite ED or Hawke Frontier ED

Anybody got buyers remorse yet? I got a little fun money burning a hole.....

Dave

No buyer's remorse at all. I'm extremely pleased with mine, which are 8x42. I've now used them quite a bit and they have yet to let me down. I really wish they had a 8x32 model in addition for something a little smaller,but that's it. These are really good in the dim, gloomy, stormy flat light conditions.

I have no remorse (but I didn't pay full price for them) they both look great. If I was to pick just one it would be the Promaster but the Hawke is still good.

But if you have the most Orion catalog you'll see the Orion ULX ED 8x42 that looks very similar to the Hawke and Promaster (down to the specs and enclosure). For $270.

Yeah, WTF

Of course they're due 10 days before Christmas so no one has looked through them yet. So we wait with baited breath.

See Birdforum's "Looks familiar" thread for more comments.

http://birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=126840

I suspect these bins are all coming out of Bosma in Ghuangzhou.

Hmm. I see that...... Was close to pulling the string on some ProMaster's. Still might and risk it.....

Just to throw another one into the mix - anybody check out Zen-Ray Optics??? Pretty nice for the price and they have some stuff coming out that might be interesting.

Zen-Ray have an interesting business model (buy a batch and sell direct until you run out).

They got good reviews with their last model but from their web sit they still don't have real pictures of the 2009 model and from the specs it doesn't look like it's going to have ED glass which I think may put them at a disadvantage this time around as the others start to appear.

In fact I've found that I'm getting satiated on bins now I have the Promaster and Hawke. I can see getting a decent (i.e. ED and as good as the Promaster and Hawke) 32mm bin to fill a gap. But with the Pentax WP that works rather well for me (it could be lighter and a bit more contrasty).

What I really want is a good, light, not expensive compact bin with a >= 4mm exit pupil e.g 6x25 or 7x28. That's an untouched market right now.

just saw on another forum. It seems zen-ray is coming out with its ED version as well. It will be interesting. I am curious how the new ZEN will compare against its less expensive ZRS model (without ED).

It seems it never came out before Christmas. Maybe a vaporware from Orion?

Yeah, I saw that too. Looks like a triplet for the Hawke/Promaster.

Zen-Ray sounds like either an alien space weapon or a high intensity tanning parlor that has bypassed some licensing steps. The Chinese may be getting better optics, but I can't say as much for their naming process.

I'll buy one from an American company selling through a good american based dealer, but not direct from a Chinese supplier.

The way I read it, it is an American company based in Oregon, just like all others. I guess they probably OEM theirm binoculars from the same factory as Promaster and HAWKE.

I think its a Chinese company located in Oregon, but I sure as heck have been wrong before. When all else fails, ask. I just e-mailed a query.

The Orion website said the ED bino wasn't due until May 09 as of the other day.

I posted on the Zen Ray ED over a birdforum.

Comparing all the bits it looks like a duplicate of the Hawke: pretty much everything matches. Slightly cheaper.

As Ward says the Orion bins have been put off until May (finance issues perhaps?) though they were priced alot cheaper.

I just quickly looked at Orion's website. I don't see that binoculars they have been advertising any more. Maybe I am not looking at the right location? Do you mean Orion might be financially in trouble, like Meade?

Mine is just speculation from the slipped date. I guess it gets worse!

The product Orion ULX ED

http://www.telescope.com/control/product/~category_id=binocular_standard/~pcategory=binoculars/~product_id=09256

and is now marked as "This item is discontinued and is no longer available for pre-order"

Might want to strike that one from the list. Shame it was a good price.

Well, it isn't inexpensive but you will have a bin that matches these specs shortly.

Hawker,

You are apparently correct. Here is the Zen-Ray reply I just got.

Steve,

Thanks for your inquiry. No, I can totally understand your curiosity.

Our company is an American company based in Oregon that does not have any affiliation with Chinese industry. Like several other companies you named, we source our products from the OEM factories in China and a few other countries per our spec. We only chose the products that offer the best quality/price ratio. We also are active sponsor that support several local hunting communities in the Northwest US.

I must admit that it is nice to see a company that actually responds to emails on a fairly consistant, and prompt, basis. I don't even want to mention the number of times I have sent emails to a few companies and never received a response.